Celebrity news from Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

Tag Archives: Matt Damon

Colin Ford, 14, reports that Matt Damon put him at ease right away after the juvenile actor was cast as Damon’s son in Cameron Crowe’s forthcoming “We Bought a Zoo.”

“He was really down to earth, one of the nicest, greatest actors I’ve ever met. We got to do some general scenes together and got to know each other, before we did any scenes where we were arguing or really close or anything like that,” notes Ford, who also worked with Elle Fanning and Thomas Hayden Church in “We Bought a Zoo.” The story of a father who moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo also stars Scarlett Johansson.

Ford’s voice is already quite recognizable to the Disney Channel’s preschool set. He plays the title character in the daily animated adventure show, “Jake and the Never Land Pirates” — which is the highest-rated preschool show on the channel, ever.

However, the affable teen actor says, “I go to a normal school, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sometimes I’ll get out of school 20, 30 minutes early to record. There are friends of mine who don’t really even know I do the show.” He has been caught, “when a little brother or sister kind of recognize my voice — ‘Hey, are you kind of like the main guy?’ They laugh. I didn’t really keep it quiet, but some people know and some don’t.”

With the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards coming up Sunday (Aug. 29), you’d better believe the dieting and working out in Tinsel Town has reached a fever pitch as stars get red carpet ready, and everyone else strives to pass muster on one of the glamour nights of the year.

“Modern Family’s” sexy Sofia Vergara admitted she’s been trying to be good about what she eats, so she can look her shapely best. Her approach – carrying lollipops in her handbag so “instead of a tiramisu, I can have a boring lollipop” – could launch a trend. Sadly, lollipops that can make one look like Sofia Vergara exist only in our dreams.

That’s good for a smile, but other “diet like celebrities” ideas out there are taken quite seriously – sometimes for the worse. As a number of Hollywood stars can attest, rash super diets can have long-lasting negative effects on one’s health

The “Master Cleanse” diet — also called the “Lemonade” or “Maple Sugar” diet — highly-touted awhile back for helping Beyonce shed 20 pounds, is actually more than 60 years old. Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers, who went vegan a couple of years back, lost some 70 pounds on the cleanse regime, in which followers chug a concoction of fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water for a minimum of 10 days. But doctors warn of the method, noting that fasting for a few days is fine, but extended fasting can lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Electrolyte imbalance can affect the heart and other major organ functions.

The same goes for extreme low carb/low calorie dieting. According to the American Heart Association, such quick-fix regimes leave out vital vitamins and minerals, may be high in fat and can increase the risk of heart disease.

And they don’t lead to sustained weight loss.

Tales of stars and models using laxatives for fast weight loss are also common — but medical experts say that such practices are actually ineffective, and can cause abdominal pain, dangerously low potassium levels in the blood, and lasting damage to the large intestine. Low potassium levels can cause cardiac arrhythmia — irregular heat beat, which can be life-threatening.

Matt Damon famously shed 45 pounds from his five-foot 11-inch frame to play a heroin-addicted soldier in the 1996 “Courage Under Fire” — by running 10 miles a day and adhering to a strict diet of egg whites, chicken, vegetables and dry baked potatoes. He looked perfect for the role, but, as he has admitted, the diet induced an adrenal gland disorder that made him deathly ill and affected him in following years

Martin Lawrence was jogging in near triple digit temperatures in an effort to lose weight for a movie role in 1999 when he collapsed with a temperature of 107 and was in a coma for three days.

All of which adds up to a cautionary note for those who may be tempted to lose weight in unhealthy ways.

At least Mel Gibson’s making some people happy. With every new rant tape release, there’s been a new crop of comedy bits on TV, radio, internet and, well, most anywhere people are being funny. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger got into the act, with the AP reporting that the California Governor told a group of utility commissioners in Sacramento that it looks as though BP has capped the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but “no one has figured out how to contain Mel Gibson.” The fake Anger Management classes that have been spliced together featuring Gibson, Christian Bale and Alec Baldwin in full tilt fury are a newer twist to the half dozen or so Gibson- Bale-Baldwin phony phone calls out there.

All of which should serve as a cautionary note to celebrities everywhere: these days, if you’re recorded while screaming, it will never, ever go away. And you could find yourself in bad company, too. Just ask Kanye West, Michael Richards, Will Arnett, Glenn Beck, Lily Tomlin, Seth Green and Matt Damon, who are among the regulars in Celebrity Rant mashups on You Tube.

Too bad no one was around with a recorder when Paris Hilton had a temper tantrum in the middle of a restaurant while dining with Pam Anderson – because no one was reading the menu to her highness.

Or when Russell Crowe was so bent out of shape over his Manhattan hotel room phone not working, he ripped it out of the wall, went downstairs and hurled it at the concierge.

Or when Madonna went into a rage on the set of a Britney Spears video in which she co-starred, because her costume didn’t fit. If only that tape were available.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE: Hayley Hasselhoff is looking forward to showing off the musical side of her performing abilities when the 16-year-old and her 20-year-old sister, Taylor, and their father, David, unveil their family reality show on A&E in November. She notes that she and Taylor “have a band together, Bella Vida, and the show will show us in the process of making our album and stuff.” That, of course, is in addition to their tabloid-ready personal lives. The pretty blond actress and model of ABC Family’s “Huge” has grown used to deflecting unwanted attention and jibes from media, she lets us know. “Why let someone bring you down when it doesn’t have to happen? My dad always says, ‘Let them do what they need to do and stay focused on what you need to do.’”